Under the Radar

Something about ExxonMobil's Profits You Probably Won't Read in Media Reports

ExxonMobil just announced their 2008 2Q earnings -- $11.7 billion -- which are being touted by the press as the "highest-ever" profit for a US company -- of course there is either a de-emphasis or no mention at all of the company's profit margin in most of these stories (ed. -- Exxon's 2008 2Q profit margin was just less than 8.5%) -- a number which might add some additional context to the report.

However, what might be most interesting about Exxon's 2008 2Q earnings report was its effective tax rate of 49% (pdf file), up from a rate of 44% in the 2Q of 2007.

That's right: ExxonMobil paid taxes of almost 50% on its $11.7 billion earnings. (ed -- Obviously, this was sloppily written. $11.7 billion was Exxon's net income, so the company's taxes weren't half of that amount, but were slightly less than the $11.7 billion, since net income comes after all expenses, including taxes. Therefore Exxon will pay about $11 billion or so in taxes on 2Q earnings.) The New Editor

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